In 2012 Alex Salmond gave a lecture entitled ‘Scotland’s Place in the World’. With characteristic narrative flair, the former SNP leader sought to position Scotland’s ambitious 2009 Climate Change Act as a pivotal moment in the story of devolution: ‘a parliament trusted with the big issues can rise spectacularly to the occasion,’ he noted. Throughout his term as First Minister, Salmond would frequently riff on the economic and job creating capacity of Scotland as a green energy powerhouse, or the ‘Saudi Arabia of renewable power.’

The thread of that narrative is wearing thin. But there is still substantial emphasis on responding to the climate crisis within the SNP’s governing agenda. In addition to a new Climate Change Bill, the current administration is committed to a clutch of policies that have the potential to support a Green New Deal. These include a Scottish National Investment Bank, a publicly owned energy company and, in a global first, the Just Transition Commission, made up of 11 independent advisors tasked with informing all areas of government on how best to manage the shift to a low-carbon economy.

However, despite Nicola Sturgeon’s commitment to delivering a ‘Scottish Green Deal,’ made at the 2019 Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) has failed to realise profound wider social benefits commonly associated with the Green New Deal proposition in the UK or USA.

The current ambiguity about the equity of the story so far must also be considered alongside an emerging consensus that the next steps in decarbonisation in Scotland are likely to be inherently more challenging. With ministers in Edinburgh currently considering a new Climate Bill in the light of Nicola Sturgeon’s declaration of a ‘climate emergency’ at the SNP’s 2019 Spring Conference, the Committee on Climate Change has pointed out that progress in the power sector is masking a lack of action in other areas. The most obvious steps, such as closing Scotland’s last coal fired power station, have already been taken. The next phase of transition: focused on transport, agriculture, and housing, is likely to be far more politically challenging, complex and costly.